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Join or Be Exterminated: Whovians find home on campus

Where can you find the UNM fight song translated into the language of Gallifrey? Try UNM's newest fan club, UNM Whovians.

The new “Doctor Who” fan club debuted at UNM's Welcome Back Days last week, in time for the popular British sci-fi show's 50th anniversary in November. Which means we now have a quantitative measure for exactly how far behind New Mexico is compared to the rest of the planet.

The television program currently features Matt Smith as the Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara, his mysterious companion. The Doctor, a Time Lord who spends his days traveling through time and space, saving the universe from certain doom, is the star of the phenomenon. On and off the air in the UK since 1963, the show returned to public consciousness in 2005 with its new series. It began gaining popularity in the US around 2010 and Americans have been dressing up as bow-tie wearing aliens ever since.

The UNM fan group was formed and is headed by Ben Ginsburg, a sophomore majoring in Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media. On the UNM Whovians Facebook page, Ginsburg describes his inspiration to form the club:

"I am a pretty shy and awkward guy unless conversations are brought to me rather than me starting them. But after wearing my TARDIS hat around campus 2 days, I get so many people coming up to me telling me they love my hat and sometimes [we] get into some hardcore [Doctor Who] discussions. Conclusion = Whovians are the most awesome people on campus."

The group's Facebook page also contains information about club events, student fan art and tons of opinions about newly cast Peter Capaldi.

American Whovians tend to be a sprightly, enthusiastic group, often excited to meet others whom they have traveled with through time and space all these years. As a proud Whovian-Lobo, I believe this club has the potential to unite a whole group of great friends who've yet to meet one another. Ginsburg likewise hopes that the club will bring together Who fans who otherwise “have no common ground.”